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Junkyard Gem: 1964 Dodge Dart station wagon

The Chrysler A Platform, built from the 1960 through 1976 model years for the North American market (and for a few years beyond that in Australia and Latin America), was one of Chrysler's greatest hits, if not the greatest hit. We know these cars best as the 1963-1976 Dodge Dart and the 1960-1976 Plymouth Valiant, and they established a reputation for reliability matched only by the likes of the Mercedes-Benz W123 diesel. I still see many of these cars during my junkyard wanderings, but A-Body wagons have become very rare. Here's a tattered '64 Dart wagon that I spotted in a self-service wrecking yard in San Jose, California. 1964 was the first model year for factory-installed V8 engines in the Dart and Valiant (and the Valiant's sporty sibling, the Barracuda), and the 273-cubic-inch pushrod V8 was a sturdy powerplant indeed. The slant-6 engine, though less powerful, went into most of these cars, and for good reason: It was harder to kill than all the world's cockroaches and rats put together. This car would have come with a 170- or 225-cubic-inch version of the slant-6, optimistically rated at either 101 or 145 gross horsepower (probably about 55 horses at the wheels), but I didn't feel like scraping sludge off casting numbers to see if it's on its first or 11th engine. In any case, slant-6 Darts were on the pokey side but would get you to your destination every time. This one has a lot of rust for a California car (in New Hampshire or Wisconsin, it would be considered pretty solid) and the interior is more or less obliterated, so even dedicated station-wagon lovers wouldn't have been motivated to take it on as a restoration project. So another early Dart is poised to be stuffed into The Crusher, for reasons that make good economic sense. This still makes us sad, though. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Here's the compact you've been waiting for!

Armormax loads a bulletproof Dodge Hellcat AWD Police Special

Earlier, we wrote about the Armormax armored Tesla Model S P100D, which International Armoring Corporation called the fastest armored car in the world. As the company also outfits cars such as Dodge Chargers, it's only logical that the showcase car is a SRT Hellcat — but the interesting thing is that the company can also upgrade the Hellcat to all-wheel drive, as Armormax told Motor Authority. When ordering an armored Charger SRT Hellcat, the AWD implementation is just a matter of ticking the corresponding box. The Armormax Charger SRT Hellcat seen here is also outfitted with police patrol car gear, complete with a push bar, run-flat tires, ballistic bulletproof glass and a mean matte black wrap. Even if the 6.2-liter, supercharged Hellcat powertrain probably has no problem hauling an armored bodyshell around, it's likely that the company has used the same synthetic fiber laminate on the Charger as on the Tesla. The bulletproof Tesla's weight gain was a negligible 11 percent, and while the Charger is a lighter car to begin with, avoiding using regular-issue ballistic steel seems to be the way to go if you want to keep the curb weight in check. The Hellcat's battery, radiator, fuel tank and ECU also get their share of protective covering, so that the vehicle is harder to disable. Paneling is available in ballistic protection levels ranging from B4 (can withstand a .30-caliber lead-core softpoint bullet) to B7 (can withstand a 9mm full-copper jacket). And while pricing isn't announced, it is likely to depend on how much protection is applied on the Hellcat and whether all four wheels are powered. A stock one is priced at $65,345. Related Video:

MotorWeek relives '80s coupes with Dodge Daytona, Ford Escort EXP

Get ready for a wave of nostalgia and the rapid realization of the huge progress in performance cars over the last 30 years. For its latest Retro Review, MotorWeek takes a look back at two, front-wheel drive coupes from the '80s that seem to have entirely vanished from the roads today. Both the 1986 Dodge Daytona CS and the 1986.5 Ford Escort EXP were considered affordable, sporty options in their day, but the passage of time hasn't been kind to either of their specs. The Daytona certainly looks the part of a performance machine with a body that's reminiscent of other '80s coupes, like the third-gen Chevrolet Camaro. However with 146 horsepower and 170 pound-feet of torque from a 2.2-liter turbocharged four-cylinder, acceleration wasn't exactly a strong suit. MotorWeek complained about copious torque steer, as well. The optional CS suspension upgrade package on this Daytona was apparently a nod to Carroll Shelby who was working with Dodge at the time. If anything, the Escort EXP withstands the test of time even worse. As a two-seat coupe, you might have expected Ford's engineers to really turn up the performance to fit the sporty image that the exterior conveyed. That didn't really happen, and depending on which model buyers ordered, they got either 86 horsepower with a 1.9-liter engine or the "high-output" version of that mill with 108 hp.